If Death The Kid Had Curly Hair
by Awkward Neko
Summary: A one-shot about Kid hiding his naturally curly hair, with lots of Kid, Liz and Patty moments throughout !


**Hello readers! Random one-shot for you here- one time I was just thinking to myself about why Kid has those two little curly bits at the bottom of his hair if you know what I mean, and this idea came to me. So I wrote it, enjoy and please review if you did it would mean the worlddddd to me 3**

It was 6:18am. At the current moment in time, in Gallow's Manor, there wasn't a sound in the house- aside from perhaps Patty's snoring- and all was still. No angry shouts/rants about symmetry and perfection, no panicked voices complaining about lateness, no random shrill laughter filling the room. As a certain blonde lay snug in her bed with her favourite giraffe plushie closely held (strangled) at her side, she didn't interrupt this silence surprisingly. Eventually however she let out a quiet yawn, and half-opened one blue eye to check the time before closing it again.

"It's only 6:18? That's good, maybe I can feed the dogs quickly..." She mumbled in her state of half-consciousness. She then suddenly sat up however, a bemused expression on her face. "I don't have dogs!" She laughed to herself, now more awake, the shine in her eyes returning as she smiled and got out of bed. Her gaze then averted to her sister, still sound asleep, looking fairly content. Probably dreaming of pretty shoes or kicking ghost ass, both girls tired from the mission the day before.

"Nya... Do I ever even wake up this early? Sis will probably be angry if I wake her up now, so I'd better not." She sighed to herself. "I'll go see if Kid-kun's awake instead."

Her feet made their way out of her shared bedroom, and onto the red carpet in the hallway as she skipped along, glancing briefly at the pictures on both sides of the walls, symmetrical. It was a huge house (hence the name 'mansion'), and just one hallway could probably make up a squished-up room. The grand room they had for hosting events, the 'party room' might even be able to make a whole house. Patty sometimes felt small just walking around (formerly) Kid's mansion.

Once reaching said male's room however, she pressed her ear up against the dark wooden door to listen for signs of life, and to her surprise heard something like quiet footsteps. With this she entered calmly, and saw a light in the en suite bathroom, leading her in to find her meister...

She raised an eyebrow. "Hey Kid, why are you using Liz's hair straightener?"

"Hm?" He put down the hair straightener quickly and looked across at Patty, perhaps surprised she was up this early, perhaps feeling flustered being caught doing something labelled commonly as a 'women's thing'. So he switched it off quickly and placed it on the edge of the counter top. "I wasn't using it, Patty." He answered a little snappily. "I was simply looking at it."

"Then why did you turn it on?"

"That was an accident." He said in defence, sighing deeply. "Just don't tell Liz I had it, okay?"

Still looking a little puzzled, Patty nodded in response. "Kay!"

There was a brief moment of silence between the two adolescents.

"You're not usually up this early." Kid commented.

"I woke up a few minutes ago."

He nodded calmly, hands rested happily in his trouser pockets.

"Oh and happy pancake day!" Patty said enthusiastically. "I almost forgot."

He nodded again, looking out a small window to his left.j

Patty pouted a little, eyes suddenly shining more than usual. "You're being all quiet and miserable today."

Ignoring this comment however, the young reaper proceeded; "...We'll wait until Liz is up for pancakes. Until then I'll be in the study room."

He turned and walked away, leaving Patty sulking.

"Oh." She said. As he also hadn't put away the hair straightener, she noticed, she decided to be a good friend and do it for him. In the same spot on the sink was his hairbrush, which she was about to put away also- until she noticed something. There was a hair next to it, black and therefore it had to be one of Kid's, but she couldn't help but wonder why it looked so oddly... curly. No, wavy. Whatever it was it was strange.

"Hm..." She quirked an eyebrow at the hair, and picked up his hairbrush, inspecting it for more of them. And from what she could see, the few hairs that were there were mostly like that- what did this mean? Kid wouldn't let anyone use his hairbrush, he had better hygiene than that. And it was unlikely he curled his hair at any point, or Patty _definitely_ would have remembered it.

"Maybe his hair just goes curly when it falls out." She guessed, shrugging before putting down the brush and heading downstairs to help make some pancakes.

 _At lunch, DWMA_

Pushing past a couple people, Patty eventually found her way to her seat in the cafeteria. It would have been with all of her friends, however there were three missing (for whatever reasons currently unknown), and so once sat down she decided to ask about it.

"Hey Patty." Liz briefly greeted her sister, before taking another sip of her soda. Soul and Maka, sat opposite, gave a small wave and Crona an even smaller one.

"Hey where's Black*Star and Tsubaki?" Patty asked, suddenly noticing their absence. And then Kid's also (causing her to wonder why she hadn't noticed earlier). "And Kid?"

"Last I heard, on some mission in Brooklyn." Soul answered calmly. "I dunno about Kid though."

"He'll probably be in the library..." Liz added.

The younger blonde nodded.

"Aww, I wanted to show him my giraffe." She pouted childishly, holding up a small (but detailed) origami giraffe. However, what she'd really wanted to ask about wasn't the giraffe. It was the curly hair on the sink she'd found, earlier that morning. And that one hair had been pestering her all day- what was it doing there? It had crossed her mind that it wasn't a, erm, 'head hair'... but Kid shaved his armpits, she knew that. And besides, they were in the hairbrush too, so it couldn't be possible.

Later that day, in the evening, there was a power cut. This wasn't a surprise considering the stormy weather outside, and the heavy rain that had been pouring down for hours, slowly forming a large puddle outside the front of Gallow's Manor. Thunder occasionally clapped outside, and as lightning flickered in the skies Patty spectated contently. Liz on the other hand, sat behind Patty on a chair surrounding the white table in the study room, wasn't so happy, instead rocking back and forth a little with her knees up to her chest.

"Patty how can you be smiling like that! It's gonna electrocute the house and kill us all!" She whined.

Patty in turn just laughed, then eventually closed the curtains and continued 'doing' her homework, torch closely at hand so she was able to see. Surprisingly however, she looked to see it already completed.

"Onee?" She questioned, pleasantly surprised.

"I did it for you, now you don't have to worry about it and you can come help your big sis instead!" Liz replied, an awkward laugh following. "Save me..."

"Aww it's not so bad!" Patty laughed, putting her pen back in the spotty pot by the table and patting Liz on the back. In turn the blonde smiled a little in that warm silence, before she was soon closer to her usual, calm demeanour.

"Also," she begun, successfully attaining her sister's attention, "is it just me or is Kid acting strange?"

"Hm? Yeah..." Patty nodded, agreeing with her sister. "Since this morning he's been acting weird. Maybe he just doesn't like pancakes."

Liz sighed, and there was a short silence before she said, "At dinner he was acting really stressy about something. I get that it's a power cut, but it doesn't usually bother him much from what I can remember..."

Patty started to contemplate telling her sister about the hair incident earlier that morning. However, she (perhaps accidentally) managed to spill it out before she was able to think that deeply.

"Kid was using your hair straightener by the way-"

"Wait, what!?" A surprised Liz exclaimed- unexpectedly, she wasn't feeling angry though. Just very confused. "Kid has hair straighter than Black Star's sexuality..."

Patty, now giggling loudly like her normal self, suddenly tried to imagine Kid with curly hair. This made her laugh more, to the extent of having to put a hand over her mouth and almost crying.

"What?" Liz questioned, a quizzical expression on her face.

"Imagine Kid with curly hair." She replied with a wide smile.

Liz chuckled slightly at this, muttering something like "It would be strange." But then, realisation washed over her features, and she asked Patty so she could be sure.

"You think that's it?"

"Wha~?"

"That might actually be why... No, surely we'd have realised by now. Or..." She stroked her chin, looking across the room and thinking deeply for that moment. "Knowing the efforts he puts into keeping the house symmetrical, I wouldn't be surprised..."

"Ask him!" Patty exclaimed.

Her sister smirked, and apparently had made her decision as it wasn't long before she pressed her book shut in her hands, and walked determinedly up the long, red staircase into Kid's room. Standing outside the dark wooden door, she was about to fling it open dramatically; but instead she opted on quietly pushing it open as if not to disturb him. When she poked her head inside, she saw her meister doing nothing particularly out of the ordinary, just folding up a white shirt to place in his closet neatly with the rest. He glanced across at her after doing said activity, asking politely what she wanted. So Liz clenched her fists by her sides somewhat excitedly, and opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey Kid can you talk for a moment?" She asked, now biting her lip a little. Surprised at her sudden more formal, mature manner, the shinigami nodded in response. So Liz sat down on the bed, knees pressed together, hands resting atop the sheets. Of course however, this was a big mistake she realised, as now the symmetry would be off and Kid would start ranting again... However, just in time before he noticed, Patty burst into the room and stopped by the two of them to watch the series of events unfold. So, Liz cleared her throat a little and straightened the sheets around her.

"I heard you were using my hair straightener today." She declared, accusing her partner. In response, Kid's expression suddenly filled with shock, and a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as he denied the statement angrily in defence. Guilt however sept into his words, the two sisters both noticed. And Liz didn't even need to speak to allow Kid to know she didn't believe him; rather, she was dead-panning him simply with her expression. And, after an awkward silence, his finger pointed at Patty.

"You said you wouldn't tell!"

Patty only laughed loudly at this, the shrill sound filling the room for a moment. As it did in her usual way.

"I should have know you wouldn't keep a secret anyway-" He muttered.

"Anyway," Liz interrupted, "care to explain why?"

Kid's facial expression looked more pressurised now, and he replied with a simple "no".

"And you've been all stressy today." Patty added, pouting a little, wide eyes looking up at her meister.

"Yeah. Cut the crap."

"Why are you so desperate to know? It's none of your business."

"You were using my hair straightener! That's my property? So yes it's my business..!"

His mouth opened to speak, but only a couple of awkward stammers came out as he found himself unable to argue with her. Then a silence. He was perhaps thinking, deeply, and to himself. But eventually he just let out a long sigh and gave in.

"Fine. But you'll laugh at me."

Patting his back, Patty giggled and reassured him; "It's okay Kid-kun~! I'm sure we won't!"

Liz just smiled.

Folding his arms over his chest, Kid looked down at the wooden floor a little uncomfortably. "It was about two years ago. I suddenly started disliking my hair even more... This time not because of the stripes..." He explained, "I looked in the mirror one day and it started looking.. curly."

Both sisters exchanged glances. 'Knew it'.

"It ruined every aspect of symmetry or neatness my hair could hope for, and over time it started getting worse... Since then, I go through a precise routine of straightening it once or twice a day."

There was a silence for a second, and though the two of them wanted to laugh, they didn't when they saw the faint pink shade on Kid's face and realised his shame in this. To most people, it wasn't at all anything to be embarrassed about... But to Kid, it ruined the one most important aspect of his life, completely messing up the balance and tidiness he strived for and worked hard to attain. So they could somewhat understand, after having lived with him for some years and becoming more acquainted with his personal daily struggles, all somehow leading back to aesthetics.

However, it was still a pretty strange thing to imagine.

"So, you naturally have curly hair?" Liz asked, eyebrows raised and a quizzical expression on her face. The reaper nodded in reply, hiding his hands in his pockets. "Not always... I didn't used to-"

"And is that why you were getting all stressy at dinner? Because your hair might go all curly and poufy again because the straighteners wouldn't work in the power cut?" Patty questioned, looking at Kid's straight, black hair (with the obvious exception of the stripes) and imagining it in twirly ringlets all over his head. Or bouncy curls, that would ping back like a spring when pulled, or whirly waves curling outwards near the bottom.

Kid nodded in response to her question, looking a little less uncomfortable now he'd received less negative reactions from his partners than assumed...

"What's annoying, however," he started again, regaining the attention of his weapon partners, "is this." He reached behind his neck to pinch the two symmetrical little strands at the bottom of his hair, curling outwards unlike the rest of the smoother, tidier haircut he had. And both Liz and Patty at that point wondered why they had never questioned the said section of hair- straight hair did not often do that. So it turns out Kid's 'secret' he'd been afraid to share for almost two years, had in fact been in front of their eyes the whole time.

"Huh." Liz was the first to break the silence. "So that's why that pings up..."

Patty nodded, blue eyes averted to the curl before Kid let it go.

"...Still, you straighten your hair TWICE a day!? That's gonna damage it!"

Kid's eyes narrowed stubbornly. "Well perhaps if I don't, it won't stay straight. Besides, I said _once or twice_ a day."

Liz shrugged it off, but continued to mentor him in the new skill he clearly knew little about. She gave him a couple of tips on how to do it less, but let it stay. Kid didn't argue however, or answer back- instead he listened to her, pleasantly surprised. He wouldn't say of course, but he felt reassured to know that Liz was allowing him to do what he desired rather than calling his routine ridiculous, or pointless. That was indeed what he'd predicted she'd say... But instead, as she finished giving her advice on the matter, he looked up with less embarrassment now and thanked her.

"But," she added, "I think you should not straighten it for a while."

"WHAT?!" He suddenly flung his hands over his head, no longer keeping the calm demeanour.

"You might not like the idea but you need it." She said, glancing at his hair. "Look how dry it is. You'll damage it."

He looked up, "Yes, I realised! B-B-But I can't go out looking like... like curly, asymmetrical garbage..." He slowly sunk to the floor. "Dirty... Untidy... I'm a failure of the name 'shinigami'..."

"Kiiid..." She groaned, Patty now laughing hysterically at her side. "Not again... And you were doing so well..." So, putting on a brave face and forcing a smile, she crouched down to the floor and put a hand on her partner's shoulder.

"You're not asymmetrical garbage Kid!"

Patti stopped laughing for a second, and sat down next to Kid on the floor, helping Liz convince him that he wasn't a waste of space.

"...You really think so? Even if I didn't straighten my hair and it went everywhere?"

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd look fine! You're not exactly gonna lose hair on one side... Like that one other time..." She muttered, remembering the time a while ago in which Kid had accidentally got half of his bangs chopped off, in an intense fight with Soul and Black Star.

Patty's curious hand reached down for a second, and grabbed a curly strand at the end of Kid's hair, lying on his neck. With this, he let out a muffled 'hmph?' and turned his head to face Patty. She smiled widely as she lightly pulled back on the hair, then watched it ping away from her finger like a springy elastic. A childish giggle escaped her at this point.

And it seemed something had convinced him, after all of that conversation. Because then, he agreed not to straighten his hair for a day or two- but, when after two days it was only looking mildly wavy, more like he hadn't brushed his hair after a vigorous shower, Liz and Patty helped lengthen those two days to a little longer. And on Friday, (marking four days since he'd last straightened it) as Liz and Patty began to watch it evolve, was when his hair started looking noticeably different. The curls at the bottom of his neck looked a little less random, and more as if they were naturally meant to be there, and his bangs started giving in to the urge of wrapping over his forehead, diving in at the bottom and beginning to stick up near the top. Towards the back especially, what had previously been held down by straighteners and gel looked less strained, the odd small curl starting to stick out (particularly at the ends). On that day, was the day he received the first question. Maka had noticed his hair looking slightly different when eating lunch in the canteen, and so Kid explained as much as he could until Liz and Patty stepped in to assist. Most people had been rather surprised, as Kid by far had the tidiest, most sensible hair of the group- and, with the perfectly placed stripes, you'd think it was natural. So there had been a couple of interesting reactions. But in the end, no one had anything bad to say about it. Instead, they looked forwards to Tuesday after the weekend and the bank holiday to see Kid come to DWMA with curly hair. It would be, as quoted by Maka, 'different, but an interesting change I'd like to see.' So over the next few days he didn't do anything again, other than some brushing (which he had previously forgotten was a struggle with curly hair) and following the usual showering routine. Over the weekend, it changed shockingly quicker than anticipated, and by Tuesday morning...

"Liz! Patty! We need to leave!" He called from the downstairs floor in aggravation, looking up beyond the double staircase. After only a minute however, Patty slid down the banisters cheerfully, landing nearly at the bottom of the steps. "Ready~!" She chirped at the bottom of the stairs, followed soon by her sister. A wider smile came onto Patty's face as she walked over to Kid, and stared at him for a moment in awe. Over the weekend and the previous day... How had his hair changed so much? Now, instead of completely straight at the back, it was packed full of large, spirally, black curls and where his parting lay in the precise center of his head then twirls poofed up before descending down into decently long, inwardly-curving strands just past his ears. They tapered into his thick bangs, which were less extreme than the curls in the back but instead formed almost a flatter C-shape atop his forehead, dipping in at the ends and descending into the same loopy curls as they got closer to the side of his head. The curls at the back of Kid's neck now didn't even look unusual, instead they fit in quite nicely with the curls of hair everywhere else. The white stripes, though less defined, were still visibly stripes and didn't look quite as bad as everyone had predicted. Instead, to Kid's happiness, they blended in and looked just a tiny bit less obvious.

So Liz and Patty stared for a moment.

"What?" Kid asked quickly.

Patty again reached out to cheerfully 'ping' a lock of Kid's hair. This had become a playful habit of hers in the past day or two.

"It's changed _so_ quickly..." Liz commented in surprise. "Almost a curly forest now." Then, smirking a little beforehand, she did the same as Patty and tugged softly on a big loopy strand near the back of Kid's hair, and let it go with a small giggle. He was clearly getting a little annoyed, but that didn't matter at the moment to anyone.

"You were right." She said, glancing over at her sister. "That is kinda fun."

In response Patty nodded, a smile on her face.

"I like it! It's all poufy and nice!" She exclaimed happily.

"You should keep it this way." Liz added. "I know the thing you have about symmetry, but couldn't you just not straighten it for a little while longer?" She pleaded, looking at Kid hopefully. "Pleease?"

"...I'll consider it." He eventually said, walking out of the manor, eyes on the clock. And it was a while before he felt the need to straighten his hair again after that... Until the end of that week he let it grow as curly as it wanted, which was not something he could easily do. And he straightened it less often, after that. Over time, thanks to Liz and Patty he realised; curly hair wasn't so bad after all.


End file.
